Over this weekend a friend came up to me at a BBQ and jokingly said "...thanks Eraker, you jerk, your website said that I was nuts." My common response in this situation (which happens rather regularly) was 'what is nuts, why do you think that?' It turned out that they had answered questions on our computer adapative diagnostic test that lead to 3 positive diagnoses. This outcome is rather common and we covered these findings in a prior blog post where we found that the average user who completes our assessment receives about 3.8 diagnoses. Approximately 80% of people who complete the test receive 1 or more diagnoses. One additional point of clarification to add is that our self-assessment is configured to provide you with a lifetime-diagnosis, meaning, have any of your prior (or current) experiences met the DSM-IV criteria for a given condition. As an example, although you may have met the criteria for Major Depression at one point in the past, you may not meet the criteria for depression currently.
When we compare Mindsite's epidemiological findings to the NCS-R, the most authoritative and recent study done on the incidence of mental health related issues in the US, the general population meets the criteria for a lifetime mental health condition in 1 out 2 individuals. We have not done an academic clinical calibration study to assess Mindsite's diagnostic results with the traditional in-person survey approach employed by the NCS-R, however we have every reason to expect that the two tests will provide equivalent results. We feel strongly about this assertion, becasue we have worked closely with the authors of the NCS-R to develop Mindsite's online assessment.
Why would academic medicine find that 50% of the population experiences one or more mental health conditions in their lifetime while Mindsite is finding that number to be closer to 80%? Selection bias is the most likely explanation, meaning people who are more interested in mental health issues are more likely to take an online assessment such as Mindsite's.
